Astronomers have detected erythrulose, a sugar found in raspberries, in an interstellar cloud near the Milky Way’s center — the first such compound spotted in space and a fresh clue to how life’s ingredients may have formed.
Space Sugar Rush: Scientists Find Raspberry Sweetener Near Milky Way’s Core
According to a study published Monday in Nature Astronomy and reported by CNN, researchers from Spain’s Center for Astrobiology used two radio telescopes to spot the sugar in a molecular cloud called G+0.693−0.027. Lead author Izaskun Jiménez-Serra called the find unexpected, since scientists assumed interstellar molecules grow one carbon atom at a time. The sugar may have formed on icy dust grains before stars existed, hinting that similar compounds — possibly even RNA-building ribose — could turn up elsewhere in space.
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